Fixed-Time Cooperative Tracking Control for Double-Integrator Multi-Agent Systems: A Time-Based Generator Approach

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel fixed-time control approach for double-integrator multi-agent systems using time-based generators, enabling robust consensus and average tracking under disturbances with proven fixed-time convergence.

Contribution

It proposes a new robust fixed-time sliding mode control method and designs fixed-time distributed observers for consensus and average tracking, extendable to high-order systems.

Findings

The proposed methods achieve fixed-time convergence in simulations.

The control strategies effectively handle bounded disturbances.

Observers accurately estimate state disagreements and averages.

Abstract

In this paper, both the fixed-time distributed consensus tracking and the fixed-time distributed average tracking problems for double-integrator-type multi-agent systems with bounded input disturbances are studied, respectively. Firstly, a new practical robust fixed-time sliding mode control method based on the time-based generator is proposed. Secondly, a fixed-time distributed consensus tracking observer for double-integrator-type multi-agent systems is designed to estimate the state disagreements between the leader and the followers under undirected and directed communication, respectively. Thirdly, a fixed-time distributed average tracking observer for double-integrator-type multi-agent systems is designed to measure the average value of reference signals under undirected communication. Note that both the observers for the distributed consensus tracking and the distributed average tracking are devised based on time-based generators and can be extended to that of high-order multi-agent systems trivially. Furthermore, by combing the fixed-time sliding mode control with the fixed-time observers, the fixed-time controllers are designed to solve the distributed consensus tracking and the distributed average tracking problems. Finally, a few numerical simulations are shown to verify the results.